Recording medium with copy protection information formed in intermittent or alternate wobbled pits and apparatus and methods for forming, recording, and reproducing the recording medium

ABSTRACT

A recording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recording medium, such as BD-ROM, which contains copy protection information encoded in intermittent or alternate wobbled pits, and to methods and apparatuses for forming, recording, and reproducing data on the recording medium.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This U.S. non-provisional application, the entire contents of which areincorporated by reference, which claims priority of Korean PatentApplication No. 2003-004487, filed on Jan. 23, 2003; Korean PatentApplication No. 2003-005211, filed on Jan. 27, 2003; and Korean PatentApplication No. 2003-016139, filed on Mar. 14, 2003; all of which werefiled in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a recording medium such as BD-ROM(Blu-ray Disc ROM) which has data written in intermittent or alternatewobbled (or zigzag) pits and an apparatus and methods for forming,recording, and reproducing the recording medium.

2. Description of the Related Art

Recently, the standardization of Blu-ray Disc Rewritable (BD-RE), whichis a new high-density rewritable optical disk capable of recording largecapacity, high-quality video and audio data, is in progress. BD-RErelated products are expected to be available on the market in the nearfuture.

FIG. 1A depicts the structure of a BD-RE, wherein a clamping area, aburst cutting area (BCA), a transition area, a lead-in area, a dataarea, and lead-out area are disposed in order as shown.

As illustrated in FIG. 1B, the BCA is located in the innermostcircumferential area of the BD-RE that is accessed first when the diskis loaded into a reproducing apparatus and may contain an informationfor the disc, such as serial number and other optional informationpre-recorded by disc manufacturer.

The lead-in area may comprise several pre-assigned areas such as a firstguard (Guard 1) area, a permanent information & control data (PIC) area,a second guard (Guard 2) area, a second information (Info 2) area, andan optimum power calibration (OPC) area. The Guard 1 area and the PICarea are pre-recorded areas in which some initial data is pre-recorded,whereas the other areas of the lead-in area, the data area, and thelead-out areas are all rewritable areas.

In the PIC area, important permanent disc information is encoded in awobbled groove by high frequency modulation (HFM).

HFM Grooves may be modulated in the radial direction with a rather highbandwidth signal, to create a data channel for replicated informationwith sufficient capacity and data rate.

As depicted in FIG. 2, the wobble-shaped data encoding is performed bybi-phase modulation. In this modulation method, a bit with value 0 maybe represented by a transition at the start of the bit cell and a bitwith value 1 may be represented by a transition at the start and in themiddle of the bit cell. The modulated bits may be recorded on the discby a deviation of the groove from an average centerline as indicated inFIG. 2. The length of each bit cell may be 36T, where T corresponds tothe length of a channel bit in the rewritable data areas.

Also, a read-only Blu-ray Disk (BD-ROM) is also under development alonewith the BD-RE. A BD-ROM may include an inner area, a clamping area, atransition area, an information area, and a rim area, as shown in FIG.3.

The information area may further comprise a BCA, a lead-in zone, a datazone, a lead-out zone, and an outer zone. As in BD-RE, the BCA maycontain disc important information (DII), such as a disc serial numberand copy protection information (CPI). If a BD-ROM is copy protected,the DII may be required to decrypt the main data contained on theBD-ROM.

The disc information in the PIC zone may be recorded as straight pits inthe same way as main data such as audio/video (A/V) streams are recordedin the data zone. The disc information may be 17PP-modulated datawritten in the form of an error correction code (ECC) block of size 64KB, for example.

In this case, however, it takes some demodulation time to retrieve thedisc information from the BD-ROM because the disc information may bedemodulated by an RF signal detection method.

As described above, the disc information contained in the PIC area of aBD-RE may be encoded in a wobbled groove by HFM. If the disc informationis recorded in the PIC zone of a BD-ROM as straight pits, an opticaldisk reproducing apparatus should be able to apply different detectingschemes to obtain the disc information depending on the disk type (BD-REor BD-ROM). Unless the correct scheme is chosen, the optical diskreproducing apparatus will fail to detect the disc information. Forexample, if a method for detecting HFM-modulated disc informationencoded in a wobbled groove of a BD-RE is applied to a BD-ROM, theoptical disk reproducing apparatus will not be able to retrieve the discinformation which is recorded in the PIC zone as straight pits.

In addition, if the disc important information (DII) contained in theBCA cannot be retrieved due to a read error, it is impossible toretrieve the data recorded on the disk. For example, if an error occurswhile the copy protection information (CPI) is retrieved from the BCA,it may be impossible to reproduce the main data recorded in the datazone because the data cannot be decrypted.

Also, because the copy protection information (CPI) recorded on PIC areaof the disk includes important data, e.g., key data to decrypt anencrypted main data recorded on the data zone, it should not be detectedeasily by any illegal device and copied to other recording media toprotect the encrypted contents recorded on the disk. It should be onlydetected by a desired detection method in a legally permitted device toensure robustness.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to arecording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recordingmedium, such as BD-ROM, capable of rapidly detecting disc informationrequired for reproducing the contents recorded thereon, and to methodsand apparatuses for forming, recording, and reproducing data on therecording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to arecording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recordingmedium, such as BD-ROM, capable of reproducing main data even if thereis a failure in reading disc important information from one or morelocation on the recording medium, and to methods and apparatuses forforming, recording, and reproducing data on the recording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to arecording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recordingmedium, such as BD-ROM, including decryption information for decryptingcontents recorded on the recording medium in such a way that thedecryption information is not copied to other recording media and/orother types of recording media, and to methods and apparatuses forforming, recording, and reproducing data on the recording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to arecording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recordingmedium, such as BD-ROM, which contains disc information encoded inwobbled pits in some sections of the recording medium, such as the PICzone, and to methods and apparatuses for forming, recording, andreproducing data on the recording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to arecording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recordingmedium, such as BD-ROM, which contains disc important information inmore than one location, for example, in the BCA and in another areaother than the BCA, and to methods and apparatuses for forming,recording, and reproducing data on the recording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to arecording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recordingmedium, such as BD-ROM, which contains copy protection informationencoded in wobbled pits, and to methods and apparatuses for forming,recording, and reproducing data on the recording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to arecording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recordingmedium, such as BD-ROM, which contains copy protection informationencoded in intermittently formed arrays of wobbled pits in a distributedmanner, and to methods and apparatuses for forming, recording, andreproducing data on the recording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to arecording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-only recordingmedium, such as BD-ROM, which contains pits formed along tracks, withdata recorded therein, the data including copy protection informationfor encryption and/or decryption, wherein pits formed in some portionsof the tracks are shifted from a track enter to left and/or right tothereby form intermittent or alternate wobbled pits, wherein keyinformation for encryption and/or decryption is encoded in a deviationshape of said pits shifted from the track center, and to methods andapparatuses for forming, recording, and reproducing data on therecording medium.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to methodfor forming a recording medium, such as a high-density and/or read-onlyrecording medium, such as BD-ROM, including forming pits formed alongtracks, with data recorded therein, the data including copy protectioninformation for encryption and/or decryption, wherein pits formed insome portions of the tracks are shifted from a track center to leftand/or right to thereby form intermittent or alternate wobbled pits,wherein key information for encryption and/or decryption is encoded in adeviation shape of said pits shifted from the track center.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to methodfor reproducing a recording medium, such as a high-density and/orread-only recording medium, such as BD-ROM, including utilizing datarecorded in pits formed along tracks, the data including copy protectioninformation for encryption and/or decryption, wherein pits formed insome portions of the tracks are shifted from a track center to leftand/or right to thereby form intermittent or alternate wobbled pits,wherein key information for encryption and/or decryption is encoded in adeviation shape of said pits shifted from the track center.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to methodfor recording a recording medium, such as a high-density and/orread-only recording medium, such as BD-ROM, including recording data inpits formed along tracks, the data including copy protection informationfor encryption and/or decryption, wherein pits formed in some portionsof the tracks are shifted from a track center to left and/or right tothereby form intermittent or alternate wobbled pits, wherein keyinformation for encryption and/or decryption is encoded in a deviationshape of said pits shifted from the track center.

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention is directed to methodfor recording a recording medium, such as a high-density and/orread-only recording medium, such as BD-ROM, including utilizing pitsformed along tracks, with data recorded therein, the data including copyprotection information for encryption and/or decryption, wherein pitsformed in some portions of the tracks are shifted from a track center toleft and/or right to thereby form intermittent or alternate wobbledpits, wherein key information for encryption and/or decryption isencoded in a deviation shape of said pits shifted from the track center.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, illustrate exemplary embodiments of theinvention, and together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the present invention.

In the drawings:

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate the structure of a conventional BD-RE;

FIG. 2 illustrates a high-frequency modulated (HFM) groove formed in thePIC area of a BD-RE;

FIG. 3 illustrates areas assigned to a BD-ROM;

FIGS. 4A-4F illustrate several formats of data recorded in the PIC zoneof a BD-ROM in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example in which the copy protection informationis encoded in intermittently formed arrays of wobbled pits in anexemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates the data structure of a physical cluster of a BD-ROMin an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates information encoded in wobbled pits and a circuit fordetecting the information in an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 illustrates information encoded in straight pits and a circuitfor detecting the information in an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 9 illustrates disc information fields recorded on a BD-ROM in anexemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates disc type information recorded in the BCA inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 11 illustrates a schematic diagram of an optical disk reproducingapparatus capable of reproducing a BD-ROM in accordance with anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

In order that the invention may be fully understood, exemplaryembodiments thereof will now be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

The BD-ROM in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the invention mayinclude an inner area, a clamping area, a transition area, aninformation area, and a rim area, as described above with reference toFIG. 3. As illustrated in FIG. 4A, the DII, such as a disc serial numberand copy protection information recorded in the BCA, is copied to thePIC zone contained in the information area at least once. The copyprotection information can be a key value required to decrypt theencrypted main data of A/V streams recorded in the data zone.

The copy protection information may not be recorded in the BCA and beonly recorded in the PIC zone, which is illustrated in FIG. 4B. The copyprotection information may also be called a ‘ROM mark’ and may containan additional flag (CPI flag) indicating whether the copy protectioninformation is recorded.

As depicted in FIG. 4C, the information contained in the PIC may berecorded partly as wobbled pits (or zigzag pits) and partly as straightpits. The main data may be recorded in the data zone as straight pits.

In an exemplary embodiment, the PIC zone may contain 2,720 clusters ofdata. The first cluster may contain disc information recorded as wobbledpits by bi-phase modulation. The other clusters may contain 17PPmodulated disc information and copy protection information having ECCblocks of size 64 KB and recorded as straight pits, for exemple the discinformation recorded as wobbled pits may be detected by a push-pullsignal detecting method and the disc information and copy protectioninformation recorded as straight pits may be detected by an RF signaldetecting method. The push-pull signal typically has lower frequencycomponents than the RF signal.

In an exemplary embodiment, the DII additionally copied to the PIC zonecan be encoded in wobbled pits to prevent it from being detected by theRF signal detecting method.

FIGS. 4D, 4E, and 4F illustrate several different exemplary dataformats. In FIG. 4D, the DII is encoded in wobbled pits and discinformation is recorded as straight pits. In FIG. 4E, the DII and a partof the disc information are encoded in wobbled pits. In FIG. 4F, both ofthe DII and disc information are encoded in wobbled pits.

The copy protection information, in one example, the ROM mark, may beencoded in intermittently formed wobbled pits to prevent it from being,easily detected by common detecting methods, while the data recorded onthe data zone is formed of straight pit.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention,where the copy protection information is encoded in intermittentlyformed arrays of wobbled pits.

As shown in FIG. 5, it is preferable that intermittent wobble structureis recorded on the area instead of a continuou wobble pit structure inorder to ensure the secrecy or robustness, such that it prevents copyprotection information from being easily detected by common detectingmethods.

In FIG. 5, arrays of straight pits (An) and arrays of wobbled pits (Bn)are formed alternately and the arrays of straight pits are longer lengththan the arrays of wobbled pits to have different durations.Consequently, the wobbled pits in which the copy protection informationis encoded are considered noise signals by common detecting methods.

All of the arrays of straight pits can be made to have the same lengthand all of the arrays of wobbled pits can be made to have the samelength. If the arrays of pits are of different length, that is, if An≠Am(n≠m) and Bn≠Bm (n≠m), the occurrence of the arrays of wobbled pits isnot periodic. This can enhance the security of the copy protectioninformation in that the probability that special information is encodedin wobbled pits becomes lower.

There are various other modulation methods that can be employed toencode the copy protection information in wobbled pits. Analogmodulation methods include amplitude modulation (AM), frequencymodulation (FM) and digital modulation methods include pulse codemodulation (PCM), minimum shift keying (MSK), and binary phase shiftkeying (BPSK).

Although the same modulation tehcnique can be applied to all arrays ofwobbled pits, arrays of wobbled pits can be encoded by differentmodulation techinques to enhance the security of the copy protectioninformation. In FIG. 5, for example, the first wobbled-pit array, B1,may be encoded by AM and the second wobbled-pit array, B2, may beencoded by FM, etc.

To decrease possible data read errors, in an exemplary embodiment thesame data be repeatedly encoded in arrays of wobbled pits.

A region of wobble pit and a region of no wobble pit may be combined ora plurality of regions may be combined and then a bit for copyprotection can be detected. For example, a recording region of wobblepit corresponding to the data bit may be recorded dispersly to severalregions, and the wobble pits is formed such that the amplitude of wobbleare small, and then the bit can be detected by detecting a pushpullsignal of low level and integrating the signal.

In an exemplary embodiment, the copy protection information has a sizeof no more than 128 bits, but if header information and redundant datafor ECC are appended, the size can increase up to 1 KB.

As shown in FIG. 6, a physical cluster of the BD-ROM may have anexemplary size of 64 KB and includes 16 address units. Each address unitmay further include 31 data frames. As a result, if the first data frame(Data Frame #0) of each address unit is encoded in wobbled pits torecord a byte of the copy protection information, a physical cluster canstore up to 16 bytes.

Hence, the copy protection information of size 1 KB can be contained in64 clusters. If an exemplary PIC zone may include 2,720 clusters, thePIC zone will have enough space to store the copy protection informationat least one. Further, the copy protection information can be recordedin the PIC zone more than once to enhance reliability of the recordeddata.

In other exemplary embodiments, it is also possible to form data framesother than the first data frame of each address unit as wobbled pits ormore than two data frames of each address unit as wobbled pits to encodethe copy protection information.

Instead of encoding the copy protection information in a fixed dataframe within each address unit, the information can also be encoded inan arbitrary data frame within each address unit. In this exemplaryembodiment, the occurrence of low-frequency signals created by thewobbled pits is not of periodic nature and thus it can enhance theinformation security as described above.

The copy protection information can also be recorded as straight pits.In this exemplary embodiment, the copy protection information can beencrypted before being recorded and a key value to decrypt the encryptedcopy protection information can be encoded in wobbled pits, therebypreventing illegal copying of the contents.

FIG. 7 illustrates the disc information encoded in wobbled pits bybi-phase modulation and a circuit for detecting the information, whereinan exemplary value of ‘0101’ is encoded in bi-phase modulated form,e.g., bi-phase modulated HFM Groove, along with wobbled pits. In thisexample, a data bit is recorded as marks and spaces of length 36Tincluding six 3T marks. Six pits representing ‘1’ and six pitsrepresenting ‘0’ are shifted from the track center in the oppositedirections.

As shown in FIG. 7. the structure by bi-phase modulation is differentfrom the structure illustrated in FIG. 2. That is, the method of FIG. 2has a bit with value 0, which is represented by a transition at thestart of the bit cell and a bit with value 1, which is represented by atransition at the start and in the middle of the bit-cell. Othersiwe,the method of FIG. 7 has a bit with value 0, which is represented by atransition at the start of low and in the middle of high, and a bit withvalue 1, which is represented by the transition in the oppositedirection. The combination of bits consists of data to detectinformation recorded as wobbled pit. The information can be copyprotection information, i.e., key data to decrypt main data recorded onthe data zone of the recording medium as shown in FIG. 4A to 4F

That is, the wobbled pit data can be reproduced or detected only whenthe bi-phased modulation data modelated by HFM is detected or reproducednormally. And also, reproduction or decryption of main data is possibleonly when the wobbled pit data for copy protection is reproduced ordetected using the normally detected or reproduced bi-phase modulationdata.

In meantime, if the information is encoded in pits, the occurrence ofsuccessive pits of the same length may not be allowed and thus pits ofdifferent length appear one after another. In this exemplary embodiment,the positions of data pits may also be shifted at intervals of 18 T toencode data in wobbled pits.

The laser beam reflected by the wobbled pits is converted into electricsignals by photo detectors 13-16.

The electric signals may be amplified by a push-pull detecting circuit,wherein Ea+Eb and Ec+Ed are amplified separately by amplifiers 10 and 11and then the difference signal ((Ea+Eb)−(Ec+Ed)) between the twoamplified signals is generated by a differential amplifier 12. The dataencoded in the wobbled pits is obtained by comparing the differencesignal 501 with a threshold level.

Similarly, the DII and/or disc information (or other information)encoded in wobbled pits can be obtained by a push-pull circuit that isused to create the tracking error signal, with no additional errorcorrection and demodulation processes.

If an error due to scratches or other disc deformities occurs whenaccessing the BCA of a BD-ROM, the DII can be retrieved from the PICzone and data recorded on the disk can be reproduced using the retrievedinformation. As a result, the main data recorded in the data zone may bedecrypted using a decryption key contained in the DII recorded in thePIC zone.

Since the data encoded in wobbled pits, for example, DII and/or discinformation, is not obtained by demodulation, it is not copied when thecontents of the BD-ROM is copied to another rewritable medium andtherefore the encrypted data copied to the rewritable medium cannot bedecrypted, thereby preventing illegal copying of the BD-ROM contents.

The disc information and copy protection information encoded in straightpits as shown in FIGS. 4C-4E may be detected by the circuit depicted inFIG. 8.

The laser beam reflected by the straight pits is converted into electricsignals by photo detectors 13-16 and the electric signals (Ea, Eb, Ec,and Ed) are added together with amplification by one or more summingamplifiers 20, 21, and 22. The RF signal, Ea+Eb+Ec+Ed, which is theoutput of the summing amplifier 22, is converted into a binary pulsetrain by an RF unit 23 and converted into digital data by a clock signalsynchronized with the binary signal. The original disc information andcopy protection information are obtained from the digital data by an ECC& demodulator 24.

The disc information and copy protection information encoded in straightpits can be read in the same way that the main data recorded in the datazone is read.

The disc information may include a disc information ID, a discinformation format, a disc type ID, disc size/version, etc, as shown inFIG. 9. An exemplary 3-byte disc type ID indicative of the type of theoptical disk can be recorded in the BCA as 2-bit data, as shown in FIG.10.

For example, if the 2-bit data is 00b, the corresponding optical disk isa BD-RE. If the data is 01b, the corresponding optical disk is aone-time recordable BD-R. If the data is 10b, the corresponding opticaldisk is a BD-ROM.

The disc information size and a flag indicating whether it is the lastdisc information can be assigned to a reserved field of the discinformation.

FIG. 11 illustrates a schematic diagram of a general optical diskreproducing apparatus including an optical pickup 30, a video disc play(VDP) system 31, and a D/A converter 32. Once an optical disk is loaded,the VDP system 31, which performs signal processing and servo control,detects the disk type information recorded in the BCA and performsappropriate servo initialization according to the detected disk type.

The VDP system 31 can detect the disc information encoded in wobbiedpits, e.g., a key data to encrypt and/or decrypt the main data of datazone, in the PIC zone from the push-pull signal.

Where the disc information size and a flag indicating whether it is thelast disc information are assigned to a reserved field, the discinformation and copy protection information recorded in the PIC zone canbe detected more accurately using the information in the reserved field.

In another exemplary embodiment, it is possible that a transition zonefor separately detecting the disc information and the copy protectioninformation is allocated to the PIC zone.

If the copy protection information is encrypted and encoded in straightpits, the VDP system 31 detects the decryption key encoded in wobbledpits in the PIC zone as described in FIG. 7, decrypts the copyprotection information read from the straight pits, and stores thedecrypted copy protection information. When the main data recorded inthe data zone is reproduced, the main data is decrypted using the storedcopy protection information.

The high-density, read-only, and/or optical disk and disc informationrecording method therefore in accordance with exemplary embodiments ofthe invention may repeatedly record important information required forthe protection of the contents recorded on the disk and encode theinformation in wobbled pits, thereby enhancing data reliability andpreventing illegal copying of the contents of the disk.

Although exemplary embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed in conjunction with a high-density, read-only recordingmedium, the teachings of the present invention are also applicable toother recording media, such as recordable, rewritable, or rewritableonce media and methods and apparatuses associated therewith, as would beknown to one of ordinary skill in the art.

Although certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention havebeen disclosed, it is noted that the present invention may be embodiedin other forms without departing from the spirit or essentialcharacteristics thereof. The exemplary embodiments are therefore to beconsidered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, thescope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims, and allchanges that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of theclaims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

1-27. (canceled)
 27. A recording medium including a control information,wherein the control information includes a copy protection informationfor use in generating and/or processing a copy-protected user data, andthe copy protection information is formed as a wobbled form and repeatedat a specific area of the recording medium.
 28. The recording mediumaccording to claim 27, wherein the control information further includesindicating information to indicate whether or not the recording mediumcontains the copy protection information.
 29. The recording mediumaccording to claim 28, wherein the copy protection information is keyinformation for us in generating and/or processing the copy-protecteduser data.
 30. The recording medium according to claim 28, wherein theinformation and/or the copy protection information are recorded by phasemodulated method.
 31. The recording medium according to claim 28,wherein the indicating information is encoded in a lead-in area of therecording medium.
 32. The recording medium according to claim 27,wherein the copy protection information is recorded repeatedly within adata unit.
 33. The recording medium according to claim 32, wherein thedata unit comprises a plurality of address units, each of whichcomprises a plurality of data frames, wherein the copy protectioninformation is recorded in each first data frame.
 34. The recordingmedium according to claim 27, wherein the control information furtherincludes physical formal information required basically for recording orreproducing user data.
 35. The recording medium according to claim 34,wherein the copy protection information and the physical formalinformation are copied to other area of the recording medium.
 36. Therecording medium according to claim 35, wherein the other area is anarea within lead-in area of the recording medium.
 37. A method ofrecording or reproducing data on or from a recording medium, comprising:(a) utilizing copy protection information for us in generating and/orprocessing a copy protected user data, wherein the copy protectioninformation is formed as a wobbled form and repeated at a specific areaof the recording medium; and (b) recording or reproducing user databased on the copy protection information.
 38. The recording mediumaccording to claim 37, wherein the step (a) further utilizes indicatinginformation indicating whether or not the recording medium contains thecopy protection information.
 39. The indicating information of claim 38,wherein the indicating information and/or the copy protectioninformation are recorded by phase modulated method.
 40. The method ofclaim 38, wherein the step (a) includes a step of (a′) detecting thecopy protection information if the indicating information indicates therecording medium contains the copy protection information.
 41. Themethod of claim 40, wherein the step (a) further includes a step of (a″)detecting a physical format information required basically for recordingor reproducing user data.
 42. The method of claim 41, wherein the step(b) records the user data based on the copy protection information andthe physical format information.
 43. The method of claim 37, wherein thespecific area is an area within lead-in area of the recording medium.44. The method of claim 37, wherein the copy protection information isrecorded repeatedly within a data unit.
 45. The method of claim 44,wherein the data unit comprises a plurality of address units, each ofwhich comprises a plurality of data frames, wherein the copy protectioninformation is recorded in each first data frame.